By Michael Moran

Copyright dailyrecord

A security guard’s desperate plea to the police to check on his family revealed a chilling tale of deceit and murder. Former US Marine Chris Coleman rang the police in May 2009, requesting them to check on his family as he had been unable to contact them by phone. However, upon arrival at the family’s lakeside residence in Columbia, Illinois, the police were met with a horrifying sight. Sheri Coleman, aged 31, and their two sons, Garret, 11, and Gavin, 9, were all found dead in their beds – seemingly strangled by an intruder. Threatening messages such as ‘punished’ had been sprayed onto the walls of the house. This, coupled with a history of threatening letters sent to Coleman and his employer, religious author Joyce Meyer, led investigators to believe that a stranger bearing a grudge had targeted the Colemans. True crime podcaster Annie Elise explained that Joyce Meyer was a controversial figure at the time. She stated: “She was the televangelist at the time. She was raking in millions of dollars. She was flying private. She was preaching around the world. She also had a hit TV show called Enjoying Everyday Life. And by 2002, she was signing $10 million book deals.” “However, all of that success came with a lot of controversy,” Annie continued, explaining that questions were being raised about how a self-proclaimed “servant of God” had managed to accumulate such vast wealth. “Protesters started showing up to her events. People were calling her a fraud, a thief, you name it.” It was for that reason that the charismatic preacher had decided to hire a burly ex-marine to head up her security team. Annie continued: “Joyce didn’t skimp when it came to paying her security team. Chris was pulling in a low six figure salary. Not too bad.” She added: “At first, he was very into it. The travel, the money, everything. It all just felt very exciting. But after a while, he started to see the cracks. He would tell his neighbours that his job was mostly ‘looking intimidating.’ And that Joyce was never really in any real danger.” But then Joyce began to receive disturbing emails, warning her that if she didn’t abandon her ministry then Coleman’s family would suffer. The threats escalated, and Coleman installed security cameras around his house to protect his family. He also spoke to a police officer friend about the threatening messages and asked what else he could do to keep them safe. “Then came the morning of May 5th, 2009,” Annie recalled. “Chris woke up early. He wanted to hit the gym before work. Nothing unusual. He kissed his wife Sheri goodbye and left the house at 5:45 a.m. And while he was at the gym working out, he sent his wife Sheri a text message saying, ‘Hey, wake up and check on the boys’. But he got no reply.” Coleman rang his police officer neighbour and requested he visit Sheri for a welfare check. What the neighbour discovered left him utterly stunned. A window appeared to have been jimmied open and throughout the property were a series of menacing messages scrawled in blood-red spray-paint. The graffiti warned “I am always watching.” Another declared “I saw you leave” whilst a third stated simply “You have paid.” When detectives reached the two lads’ bedrooms, they discovered both youngsters had been killed. Spray-painted across 9-year-old Gavin’s bed was a message officers found so deeply disturbing that its contents have never been publicly revealed to this day. Sheri was discovered naked, lying face down on her bed having been sexually assaulted before being strangled to death. She had clearly struggled with her killer before ultimately being overpowered and murdered. However, following more thorough scrutiny of the crime scene, certain details failed to make sense. Annie clarifies: “We know that Chris left for the gym at 5:45 a.m. That was caught on security camera footage. Police arrived just before 6:45 a.m. “So whoever carried this out had less than an hour to slaughter three people and then spray paint all of these threats across the walls and on the bed sheets. That represented an enormous amount of activity for under 60 minutes.” Post-mortem examinations indicated that Sheri and her two sons may have perished before Coleman departed for the gym. Adding to suspicions, Coleman showed virtually no reaction when informed that his wife and children had been slaughtered, and bore unexplained scratches on his arms that he appeared reluctant to discuss. Coleman’s alibi crumbled further when he voluntarily handed over his phone to officers, believing that his “wake up” text to Sheri would demonstrate his innocence. However, the message he’d sent his wife – which he claimed was routine – marked the first and only occasion he had ever sent such a communication. Additional messages on Coleman’s device disclosed that he had been openly discussing divorce, and voicing worries that Sheri would secure a portion of the earnings from his lucrative new position. Most incriminating of all, investigators discovered evidence that Coleman had been conducting an extramarital relationship with Sheri’s former closest friend, Tara Lintz. When Tara faced questioning, the ex-strip club cocktail waitress confessed to detectives that she had been exchanging intimate messages with Coleman since November 2008 and that he had vowed to wed her following his divorce. That proved sufficient for prosecutors to bring charges against Coleman. In May 2011, Coleman, 34, was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder. Whilst the prosecution discussed seeking the death penalty, the State of Illinois had abolished capital punishment shortly before proceedings commenced. Instead, he was handed a life sentence. Coleman’s defence lawyer told the judge that this was essentially a death sentence, stating: “You know a life sentence condemns him to a six by eleven foot coffin where he’ll be with another man 23 hours a day. You know all too well what a horrible punishment it is to put a person in prison and know he will die there.”